10 Hidden Details You Never Noticed In Metallica Tracks
6. "The Unforgiven II" Is The Exact Opposite Of "The Unforgiven"
1991's "The Unforgiven" has to be one of Metallica's best ever songs: emotive, diverse, heavy and beyond dark, it's a nihilistic ballad that forms a corner-stone of the band's self-titled opus.
When it came time for 1997 and the ReLoad record, then, the announcement that the sombre powerhouse would be getting a sequel left many eyebrows raised, especially after the ever-controversial Load the year prior. However, "The Unforgiven II" very quickly became recognised as the best track on the entire record, providing genuine intricacy and emotion on an album that sorely lacked both of this things in almost every other aspect.
Its primary strength is its ability to be both similar and different to the original. Sure, it has that horn at the start (and trust me, we'll get to that little nugget later), the heavy/clean dichotomy and shares a handful of the lyrics but, aside from that, "The Unforgiven II" strived to be entirely opposite to its predecessor.
While "The Unforgiven" drove itself with heavy verses followed by clean choruses, "II" reversed that, relying on more tranquil verses followed by a pummelling refrain.
This musical opposition drove home both the connection and separation of "The Unforgiven"'s two parts, doing what any great follow-up does by remaining both similar yet also harrowingly different to part one.
Because, let's be honest: the first time you heard that heavy riff follow up from that usually slow-building horn, it took you by surprise, too.